A post on SemiAccurate breaks down some information from PC Watch (translation) suggesting that Intel's upcoming Broadwell CPUs will be soldered to the motherboard, rather than socketed, a detail they have now confirmed with a pair of OEMs. They offer the distressed opinion that this will be a death knell to the desktop PC and the enthusiast market, and though they add that they've received information indicating there's a "good chance" that the Sky Lake processors that will follow Broadwell will be socketed for one or two generations to follow, they conclude: "By then the last remaining overclockers and experimenters on the PC front will be gone, and for good technical reasons." Thanks Ant via Slashdot.

The idea that you need to be an engineer to determine what sorts of purchase options you want available to you is amusingly flawed. Intel can make whatever business or technical decisions it likes, it doesn't mean everyone has to accept it. Personally I don't feel like the idea of integrating the CPU and motherboard, this isn't the first time it's been attempted either. I think it makes a lot of sense in certain markets but I dislike the idea of it becoming the standard.